June 2015 NICS Checks Highest Ever. Gun Sales Surge or the New Normal?

“The June 2015 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 886,825 is the highest June on record for the 17-year-old system,” the National Shooting Sports Foundation reports, “with an increase of 10.1 percent compared to the June 2014 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 805,571.” This astounding number of NICS checks number – which doesn’t include background checks for concealed carry licenses doesn’t necessarily indicate that gun sales have started surge. But . . .

it’s an excellent indication that the U.S. firearms market isn’t declining. At all.

While the civilian disarmament industrial complex and their mainstream media anti-gun agitprop enablers would have you believe that the post-Newtown surge is down to OFWGs buying more and more guns, it’s more than likely that the increasing number of women buyers (an estimated 20% of total sales) and younger shooters entering the market and, presumably, returning (as new gun buyers are wont to do), are keeping sales strong.

If Hillary Clinton avoids jail time [sic] and becomes the Democratic nominee, you can bet your bottom dollar gun owners will start stocking up again. If an establishment Republican gets his or her party’s nomination (*cough* Jeb Bush *cough*) well, here we go again.

This is winning. Sure we are fighting in towns, counties, and states for gun rights, but the bottom line is when individuals put skin in the game they start caring about it. Some more than others, but the more new shooters, younger millennials plop down their hard earned cash for a firearm, well, that will trump the agitprop anti argument any day.

Many states, including Texas, don’t require Concealed Handgun License (CHL) holders to go through an NICS check at the time of purchase.
CHL holders have already been background checked as much as police officers and, as a group, are more law-abiding (i.e., less criminal convictions) that police officers.

So, the current NICS numbers are WAY too low for the number of guns being sold by FFLs.

You missed his point. Under the NICS law the Feds will allow an FFL to sell a gun to a buyer with a CWP or FOID provided that the State-issued ID required a BC. Some States override this allowance and require a NICS check even when the buyer has their own State CWP/FOID. About 21 States don’t over-ride the Fed allowance.

So, in one of these 21 States, a person can get his CWP/FOID and he gets a BC via NICS. NSSF deducts this BC because it comes from a State, not an FFL. Now, the new CWP/FOID holder walks out the door of his local Sheriff’s office and in the door of his FFL and buys a gun. He fills out the 4473 form, but there is NO BC on the purchase. NSSF has no means of picking up the fact that this CWP/FOID holder bought a gun.

Our CWP/FOID holder can buy another gun next week/month/year, and another and another. Still, no NICS checks coming in from the FFLs.

To the extent that this phenomena occurs (in about 21 States) the NICS adjustments don’t pick up the sales.

What Jack was saying is that some states don’t require a NICS check AT ALL for purchase if the buyer already holds a CCW/CHL. But in the reading I have done, I don’t know if that is the case anymore. I thought after 30 November 1998, all transfers requiring an ATF form 4473 were required to be vetted through NICS…?

Federal licensed firearm dealers regularly sell firearms without running a background check when the purchaser has a concealed carry license. It doesn’t matter whether the purchaser is buying a handgun, shotgun, or rifle.

As far as I can tell, federal licensed firearm dealers require a form 4473 on EVERY firearm they sell. But that is separate from the whole background check discussion.

Correct. Here in Wyoming, if you have a CCL, you don’t need a NICS check run on you.

But the FFL MUST, absolutely MUST, fill out a 4473 and keep it in his files for every retail sale, and there will be a notation in the bound book as to the disposition of the gun. The CCL # will be kept on the 4473 instead of the NICS number.

I’ll be adding to the figures later this week when the gun I bought off auction arrives at my FFL. Happy to do it! (Maybe I’ll even write a review….since it is a Colt 1873 clone, that Henry will fit right in with it. )

NSSF publishes their numbers all the time. The reason that the numbers “always” seem good is because they usually have been — except for the 2014 annual numbers, which were disappointing compared to the Obama scare years.

There are worse things to spend money on. Relatively speaking the average firearm is not that expensive, and the more people hear the anti-gun BS, the better that $500 gat looks, and AR’s have never been better or cheaper.

Women and younger shooters are the exact demographics needed to ensure a positive future for our 2nd Amendment Right. These two groups use to represent the groups socialist gun control groups would target to instill fear into. Nowadays people are thinking for themselves and realizing that self defense is their OWN responsibility, that the shooting sports are pretty damned cool, and that the 2nd Amendment is the publics own check and balance against on overbearing government.

In like Ray Flynn? Yeah, I think not. In like Flint, well, maybe. James Coburn set many a fire in his day amongst the teeny-bopper set, but a Sean Connery/007 he was not, though he tried mightily and came close.

Ahhh….., for those days when men were men and the women were ferociously and unapologetically feminine. It’s not easy being an old school anachronism, you know.

I got interested in obtaining more firearms in the fall of 2008. Let’s just say the current occupant of the WH has spurred many to become interested in firearms. My biggest regret to date is trading in a Ruger .44 Mag given me by my father. Kick myself every time I think about it. As others have said, I am a buyer not a seller.

Doing my best, as a woman, to have as many handguns as will fit in my gun cabinet. Today picked up a check at local gun store for sale of a 9mm pistol to pay for a 9mm pistol I had purchased last month. I only will sell a handgun in order to purchase another one.
As far as younger generation becoming gun owners, might be interested in the growing popularity of bachelor parities being held at gun ranges. Couple of weeks ago was at outdoor range, office was filled with over 20+ young guys having a party for their friend. Most were at the gun counter looking to buy a first pistol. Owner of the range, a woman, said it’s become very popular trend. BTW these were college educated guys from Austin TX. working for the same high tech company.

It will be interesting to see if the upward trend continues into July. Certainly with new shooters, coming of age shooters who can now legally purchase their own guns, and end of year sales prompting replacements and upgrades for existing shooters can cause an upswing in sales.

Downunder it was hoped by the anti-gun groups that after the 1990s buy backs and the new restrictions on licenses and usage of firearms that the sport would diminish and fade away. The anti-gun groups had a big hissie fit over the increased number of licensed shooters and the number of guns in private ownership.

What was causing the angst was that while the shooters were NOT breaking the law, they were not doing what the anti-gun groups wanted them to do.

Although anyone with half a brain could see that there was an increase in the population but the growth in the sport was greater.

I spurred a young mans interest in guns to the extent he went out and got training, bought his pistol, then applied for his CCW.
His wife was resistant to the idea of him being armed, but the nightly news was enough to change her mind. I hope we can get her armed in the future. Some range time should help.

US gun ownership is likely up. The peer reviewed academic work shows that surveys and polls on questions people consider private, massive under-counts are the rule.

The academic studies show that indirect questions glean the most accurate results. In the case of the US and guns, we have a good indirect question asked by the largest firm, gallup in their national surveys: “do you think having a firearm in the home makes it a safer place or more dangerous place to be?”

63% of Americans say owning a gun makes them and their families safer.

I also thing the claimed demographics by Pew and GSS are wrong. I have older male friends in the mountain states who would not hesitate to say they have a gun since it is a given.

I am in the Northeast, mid 30’s and my dad taught my sister and I to NEVER tell anyone about guns in the home. No poll or survey is really anonymized and may as well tell a stranger you keep large amounts of cash at home.
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‘My view we see a general raw undercount in surveys and polls, and that the undercount is more acute among women, younger people, and people who keep a firearm for home defense, as opposed to hunting and social target shooting

As Kevin Baker noted (of the Smallest Minority blog fame) the other day, Americans have been buying firearms and ammunition at a remarkable pace for the last two decades. Extrapolating out a bit, when the “austerity riots” or whatever societal breakdown you care to categorize finally reaches our shores, it’s going to be absolutely SPECTACULAR.

It looks bleak for the GOP, when even TTAG supports the transex freaks and the homosex maniacs, it look like another establishment GOP will be the nominee, which means another democrat victory. Lucky Hillary. If the GOP wants a victory then you need a nominee who is both a social conservative and a fiscal conservative. That means saying no to the baby murderers and homosex freaks along with defense for the 2nd amendment and the 1st.

Carlton Tan,
I have no problem with Trans and homosexuals. I am a practicing Catholic. But I follow what Christ taught, not the Catholic Church and all it pedophiles (if they had acknowledged the problem, I’d have been a lot happier)
Christ accept all, including lepers and prostitutes. My opinion is that he was inclusive. The Bible and the Gospels were written well after he died.
Look up the Nicene Creed and it’s origins. Anytime you get a bureaucracy involved (including the Church) you are going to have significant negative issues.

It would be nice if 50% of total sales came from women. Just because they make up half the population, and there’s no reason for them to be any less apt to buy one, whether for protection or recreation. You don’t see women shying away from owning cars or cell phones, and if everyone had sense, nobody would think a gun is a particularly different purchase than either of those.